No doubt we will continue to hear names floated around with Portland a final stop – or departure in some cases. All I can tell you – after making calls, sending texts and swapping emails – is what I’m hearing from sources around the league and in the market in regards to the Blazers.

So here goes….

We already know Travis Outlaw has plenty of suitors, but one Eastern Conference team – one in the top ten in this year’s draft actually – is heavily interested in Outlaw according to one source. The team is said to love that Travis can get out and go on offense. But will he go on draft night?

Petteri Koponen and Joel Freeland have never been so popular in Portland. Are their rights being renounced? Will they be included in a trade? Maybe a little of both. They can be traded, but that’s not Portland’s highest priority. Kevin Pritchard said he isn’t going into this draft saying he has to trade Freeland and Koponen.

“They hit our cap, but it’s such a small number,” Pritchard said. “It’s like $800,000 dollars. It’s not like a $5 million cap on us, so it’s not that big of a deal.”

While the Milwaukee Bucks took a major step toward clearing some salary cap space Tuesday when they traded Richard Jefferson and his hefty $29.2 million contract to the San Antonio Spurs, they are expected to make even more fiscal-savings moves.

The scuttlebutt around the NBA is the Bucks are now exploring the possibility of trading veteran point guard Luke Ridnour.

Ridnour, whom the Bucks acquired last summer in a multi-team trade that sent Mo Williams to the Cleveland Cavaliers, is guaranteed $6.5 million next season in the final year on his contract.

Bucks general manager John Hammond has made it clear that he wants to retain both power forward Charlie Villanueva and point guard Ramon Sessions, who both become restricted free agents July 1.

The Jefferson deal should enable the Bucks to re-sign one of those players. However, unless they move another contract like perhaps Ridnour’s, it would be nearly impossible to re-sign both of them.

White-hot rumor

Minnesota acquired the No. 5 pick in a trade with Washington Tuesday. Now, there’s talk the Timberwolves will try to package that pick, along with their No. 6 pick, and send them to Memphis for the No. 2 overall selection.

The Timberwolves would then select Rubio, whom some observers claim is the second coming of “Pistol” Pete Maravich.

n The New York Knicks, who currently have the eighth overall pick, are trying to acquire the No. 3 pick from Oklahoma City. The Knicks are targeting Curry, whose dad, Dell, played for the Bucks during the 1998-99 season.

I saw that ESPN is reporting that the holdup to the deal is that Thomas will have to agree that he won’t opt out of his deal on July 1. Trust me, that is not a concern. Not only would he be walking away from more than $8 million but he would also pass on a possible starting job with the center-less T-wolves.

I still have to assume that something else is in the works for the Wizards because they now have a 13-man roster with six guards, possibly seven if you include Miller. They are especially thin up front, with Andray Blatche, JaVale McGee and Dominic McGuire the only "bigs" on the bench. The Wizards will have to find some size this summer and they still have the No. 32 pick and Mike James’s expiring contract to work with.